Suppose you had a giant set of weighing scales. If you put all your organization’s leaders on one side of the balancing scales and all the managers on the other, which way would it tip? Is the balance of the two optimal for the kinds of challenges your organization confronts? Or is the question framed poorly? Perhaps, rather than being truly distinct species, leaders and managers are idealized mental models of leadership and managerial qualities—qualities that usually coexist to varying degrees in each person.

Forming a clear idea of the nature of leaders and managers and of the relationship between them matters. Why? Because executives need to know when they should be leading and when they should be managing, and organizations need to find ways to train good managers and develop leaders at the same time.

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